Prayer march marks killing of 15-year-old New Orleans girl

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneLakita Johnson's cousin, at right, is comforted Sunday at Washington and South Liberty streets where 15-year-old was shot to death Saturday night.

A day after the fatal drive-by shooting of a 15-year-old girl in Central City, a swelling crowd of pastors, parishioners and others formed a circle on Palm Sunday near an intersection blocks from the murder and held hands, bowed their heads and prayed.

The Rev. John Raphael of New Hope Baptist Church in Central City stood in the middle, leading the prayer before a march, a towering presence with beads of sweat trickling down his brow. He wore a T-shirt with the words "Yes We Care!" on the front over his tie and collared shirt.

Raphael led the prayer for the family of Lakita Johnson, who was fatally shot Saturday around 10 p.m. He prayed for the violence to stop and for people to value lives.

"It has to be made known that it bothers this community," said Raphael, leader of the "Yes We Care!" movement by religious leaders and others, spawned from the desire to curb violence in some African-American communities and reclaim those neighborhoods and to encourage unity and respect for life.

At least 100 people, from children carrying "Yes We Care!" signs to pastors in suits and ties to elderly women wearing crisp Sunday frocks, marched a few blocks to the crime scene at Washington Avenue and South Liberty Street in a sign of solidarity, fatigue and frustration over the violence -- and hope.

The night before, Lakita lay on the ground clutching a neighbor's hand, gasping, as neighbors begged for her to hold on, said Keqante Brown, one of the neighbors.

The teenager stayed awake for about 10 minutes or so, Brown said.

"She's an angel going on to heaven,' " Brown said.

Still more violence

Sunday's call to march was so quickly given and heeded that Raphael jokingly asked beforehand whether people had money, in case they needed to bail him out. He didn't have a permit, he said.

One pastor in the back of the circle said, "We're covered on that one."

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneOne of two men shot at the corner of Dryades and Second streets is put onto a stretcher by EMTs on Sunday.

But despite the show of peace Sunday afternoon, just five blocks away another shooting wounded two men.

According to witnesses, three men were getting into a car at Second and Dryades streets around 3:30 p.m. when someone drove up in a large black sport utility vehicle and opened fire. Two of the men ran down the street, with the driver following and shooting at them. The third man got into his car and sped away.

Witnesses said there was a child in the car that was shot at but no one knew the child's whereabouts.

One man was shot in the leg and another was shot in the arm, the New Orleans Police Department said.

Both were transported to the hospital and are in stable condition, police said.

The back-to-back incidents broke a peaceful six-month streak for the violence-ridden neighborhood, said the Rev. Patrick Keen, who left the Lakita Johnson memorial to survey the shooting at Dryades and Second.

"I was just glorying in that the other day, and now we have all of this that's happened over the last 24 hours," Keen said. "It's very disconcerting."